Refining grain plays an important role in improving the mechanical properties of aluminum alloys. However, the conventional casting method with a slow cooling rate can be easy to cause coarseness of the microstructure and serious segregation. In this paper, the rapid solidification of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy was prepared by the single-roller belt method. The alloy strip was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and hardness test to study the microstructure and properties of the rapidly solidified aluminum alloy. The results show that the roller speed was an important parameters affecting the formability of the alloy. When the roller speed was 15 m/s, the aluminum alloy produced a thin bandwidth of 5 mm and a thickness of 150 um. As the rotation speed of the roller increased, the cooling rate of the melt increased, and the microstructure of the rapidly solidified Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloy strip improved in grains refinement. Compared with the conventionally cast Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys, the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys prepared by rapid solidification showed much finer crystal grains, and enhanced solid solubility of alloying elements with less precipitation of second phase and high hardness.
Heterogeneous nucleation of the primary phase in the rapid solidification of Al-4.5wt%Cu alloy droplet